Bass Tips: Put 'Em Here

[snowsprite]

I was out of the running for a few years, and still I got some good sized ones last season. But I am set on improving my game this new season. Consistency and monster-sized fish are my goal (isn't it everyone's?).

Help a girl out and share your bass snagging ideas here. Where do you look? What do you use? When's the best time?

I have searched the internets high and low but I want to know: WWMD to catch a big bass?

Sprite

[Andy_B]

I've been having good luck with Black, Brown and White woolly buggers. I know that you fish with spin gear... but a slip bobber and bugger fly should be good all year. Bigger the bait bigger the fish, in most cases.

[pechelman]

ive always had my best luck, fishing for bass in a freshwater lake\pond, by using smallish sized swimming type minnow lures.

something that vaguely resemble the *size* of the local bait fish
something thats more torpedoey so it doesnt get snagges as easily
i always preferred the suspending lures, but it will depend on your water and what depth you need to fish. aka jerk baits

some of my favorites were things like these




Id also say to stick with lures with just 2 trebel hooks, and if they dont come with them, get the "rotating" setting hooks with the fancy slick coatings. I also always pinched the barb half way down to help get a quick set and quick release, and I was always paranoid about getting a hook through my thumb or something.

pay attention to water clarity and sky conditions and let that determine what color\noise style bait to use. The more clear and the more sunny, the more conservative you should be.

other than those, it really depends on where youre fishing and what depth you need to get to. other good and generally necessary items to have in the tackle box are spinner baits and jigs. usually youll be fine with 3 colors, white, yellow, and whatever. If you're jigging, also pick up some of that pork stuff they use.

Fishing plastic or rubber worms\grubs can work good too, but at the end, I stopped fishing these a lot because they required a lot more rigging and terminal tackle and were more prone to snagging and fouling. They also required a good bit of weight to throw well with my casting reel\rod.

really though
bass are pretty stupid as far as fish go
you could throw out a hot dog on a hook with some lead shot and catch something
...or hook into a catfish

or you can do it like my cuban grandpa did with the handline steeze


oh
other questions
as far as when and where to look
where depends on the water. get to know it, and get to know what places see lots of fishing pressure
if you can get a chart and see the depth, or a depth finder to look for deep pools
look in thick heavy cover where its hard to fish (or hard for a predator to stalk from above)

when, ive always found morning and evenings to be good in general
otherwise it again depends on your water, and if there is any sort of tidal flow that could effect bait fish
rising pressures are generally good
first warm day after a very cold spell is good
the couple hours after a rain can be good (it will be muddier, so bring out the bright flashy lures)
lots of clear high pressure days, maybe not so good

fish are like deer
the are opportunistic and dont like to work too hard for food
they will feed when its safe and easy for them to do so
or unless you piss them off enough to attack what you're throwing...but the former works much better

other things
-cast methodically
think about the water you are fishing and the best, most efficient way to cover it, in the least amount of casts
the fewer the lure plops into the water, the less chance you have of spooking them.
when casting near docks or shoreline, cast onto the dock or onto the shore, and gently work the lure into the water for stealth mode
or plop the lure onto a lilly pad and then work it down.
generally, let the lure sit before you start retrieving. let it settle so the fish forgets about it. again, generally.

-after the pause
work the lure
start and stop
fast and slow
like some other activity you're probably familiar with
generally speaking, Ive found bass to take it right after I start after a stop.
or with a suspending lure, when its just sitting there floating, and i give it a gentle twitch

-learn how to pitch lures so it just gently lands on the surface
its kinda like fly fishing sorta. You can also just "haul" the line and not use your reel at all when in close quarters
makes for a great stealthy presentation

ive had little luck with surface lures of any kind when fishing for bass (fly, popper, buzzbait)
the one time i ever caught a bass on the surface, was with a small popper\chugger type bait, on a blue sky day, great weather, in about 12" of water
not sure why I was fishing that lure there, but i just felt like it.

As far as fly fishing
same rules apply i think
i like streamer type flies like wooly buggers, clousers, lefty deceivers etc
also dahlberg (sp?) divers if you're into the surface thing, because you can fish them just below the surface as well.

ok
ive typed enough
and probably singled myself out as a redneck bass fisherman
havent done it since highschool though when I lived on a great bass lake
probably fished a couple hundred days a year for a few years back then
lets just say i know Brandt Lake really well

[G. Gordon Liddy]

Damn, I love when gals ask about how to catch a large bass. Something there is really sexy!

[hartzejr]

I key on structure when fishing for bass. Don't just chuck it into the middle of the lake. Look for submerged shrubs and trees. Rock piles or even rocky shores (especially for smallies). Dramatic drop offs and shelves. And if its spawning time, looks for flats with vegetation. Bass are ambush predatory fish. Try to cast to where you would thing they would be hiding.

Also, my new favorite technique(before moving north) is a texas rig with a plastic reaper/reefer or maybe a Gulp minnow. For examples of reapers/reefers, check out mojo lures (reefers) or maniac custom baits (cuter-bugs).

Plenty more advice I could give but I might have to do it in parts as I should get back to work.

I agree with GGLtoo, ladies asking fishing questions/advice = sexy

[72Twenty]

Do you fly fish? Do you want to spend some money?

Sage has some nice new bass-specific fly rod outfits.

Also, I have caught large bass with fly rods using frog patterns on the surface (with weed guards).

Something like this:

[summit]

Rooster tail with an eyed spinner...

Bass are retarded.... not croppie/bluegill retarded, but they ain't no trout.

[warthog]

What kind of access do you have?

Which lake in CT?

If you have a boat, or access to a dock, try going on a full moon.
Top Water lures under the full moon can't be beat. Make 'em splash around a lot, and then leave them still for a second, repeat all the way on the retrieve. That is guaranteed to be the most fun you'll ever have fishing. Nothing beats top water in the early morning, evening, or under the moon. Fish near known submerged structure, or docks.

[Andy_B]

^ Also... I do this when fly fishing large flies... as soon, as soon as it hits the water give a quick rip. then let it settle for a few seconds...then twitch twitch jerk. jerk twitch. twitch. jerk jerk. keep your rod tip low and 90* to your line and keep your line tight.


these work wonder full or these.

[ImSearchingforPowder]

I slay them with this.

[ak_powder_monkey]

size 8 crayfish soft hackle under a popper

[snowsprite]

Wow, thank you! This is exactly what I was looking for. Keep 'em coming.

The best luck I had was with spinnerbait. I used a red one they seemed to really like a lot--the big fish bit that. They like yellow spinnerbait too. With a nice fluffy skirt!

I wonder about this color thing. I went out and got a white black fury (image 04)



because I read this shows up really well on a moonlit night. I have heard they bite really well on a full moon. But I have caught the biggest bass always in the late afternoon, just a few hours before sunset.

I also look for downed trees, rock outcroppings, etc. but have found that peninsulas harbor a lot of bass/fish in general and also if there's any markers on a lake ("high spots" or submerged islands) they gather there too.

Generally, I fish on lakes in VT (central region). I tend to use spincast reels b/c I make a mess of open spinning reels. I'm also not too coordinated! But I can use the spinning reels effectively when I am careful. I'm just lazy.

I have had a few fly-fishing lessons and I liked it, but am not currently skilled at flyfishing. would love to try it out in earnest some day though. Love the idea of designing and tying my own flies. I'm forever checking out the bugs buzzing around and wishing I could create something to emulate those.

Thanks again, and moar tips pleez!

Sprite

[snowsprite]

Some great info on crawfish lures here:

http://home.comcast.net/~rkrz/infoarch/fyicrawfish.htm

I like crawfish deep diver lures and have had luck w/ those. Supposedly a good lure now, in the Springtime!

Sprite

[EarlyWood]

I like the info coming out here, sometimes have an open mind and will experiment..that said, an opportunity to post (re-post?) one of my favorite pics.
SPINNNERBAIT Spritey! I have the best luck with the single blades. The weeds in the pic are pretty much hiding the single silver blade. Bass are territorial and these things scare em into striking. Why else would they want to bite such a weird fkn thing? Should/could be a great early season spawning approach and they're usually killer throughout the season.









Does the Bass Master's Tournament have any ladies? I can see you doing that Spritey. You need a bass bikini..

[EarlyWood]

use up all your words before getting into the boat

[GoEhuge]

5 inch Gary Yamamoto Senko. Color depends on where and when.. but I've always been a fan of the dark green w/ yellow tail, or pumkpin. These put most other soft plastics to shame.

[72Twenty]

I used these for bass on my spinning rod when I lived in Texas...

[scoober]

If you are fishing at night, I've found nothing works better than the Arbogast Jitterbug. There really is nothing else to be using at night. Cast parallel to shore, slow retrieve, don't try to set the hook, because if you hear a strike and it misses, you'll just jerk the bait away, and the fish will be looking to strike again on a dead in the water bait.

http://www.bassdozer.com/articles/night_jitterbug.shtml

For daytime fishing in shallow water (4ft or less, so like local ponds, etc.) I like to use a Rapala original floating #7, #9, or #11, in the clown pattern. (Silver belly, fluoro back, red fluoro head, and it looks like they don't offer it anymore.) I've also had OK luck with the perch pattern. Neither of these patterns typically resemble the local baitfish, but they always seem to work better than a shiner pattern. The number 7 is really versitile, it will grab big bluegill and crappie if they are around. Also works well for river smallmouth.

edit: for crawfish lures, I've always had good luck with the Rebels. http://www.lurenet.com/catalog.aspx?catid=Crawfish

Also pretty versitile, the small flourescent pattern KILLS bluegill/sunfish on sunny days.

[Sublime]

Damn scoober nailed two lures I have had good success with over the years. I've had better luck at night with a Hula Popper more then the Jitterbug. A few ploomp chug chugs in shallow water over a weed bed almost always gets results. Some of my best fishing has been at night with one of these things.



For day fishing I tend to be a crankbait guy and have had luck with a deeper diving 8-12 ft Blue topped chartruse belly crank.

[72Twenty]

...few ploomp chug chugs...

Ever notice that we make up more words to describe things in fishing than anywhere else?



I'd say every one of us has, at one point or another, sounded like this guy when describing something about fishing...

[Joey Joe Joe Junior Shabadoo]

I'll skip the artificial bates since everyone covered them. If you access to a catawba(sp??) tree that isn't worm a free one, you have access to the best live bait I have ever seen. The trees get these big fat neon green and black worms that I have never seen a bass ignore. We had two on our farm growing up in VA and while the worms do produce a literal ton of shit in the form of hard little pebbles, they are like crack to the bass in our two ponds.

[DictatorShooter]

Agree on the Gary Yamamoto - caught 8 decent bass (10-16 inches) in 30 minutes last Saturday on the Japanese wonder worms.

[GoEhuge]

^^^ Cheers on that. Gary is my hero, and I'll never use any other soft plastic.

This site: http://www.bassresource.com/fish/bass_fish.html is real good for basic tips on certain conditions/lacations/times of year.

[snowsprite]

^^Oh you rule! You have given me so much fodder for my final days in the cube. I will be slaying bass like crazy soon and will report back here.

I'm all tingling with fishing-anticipation...can't wait to get out there!

Sprite

[EarlyWood]

tingling, anticipation, and custom bass bikini..
oh yeah, they don't stand a chance when you get out of that cube girl..nor do we
G.Gordon L is right..